A New Time starts Now, at this Present Moment

How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you’re having.Eckhart Tolle

This post is long overdue, I wanted to write it before this year ends. It feels important to me, so excuse me if you’re here for art and craft and creativity. I don’t believe anyone of us can do art and craft (well) or be very creative if we don’t take a break and consider how we live our life. The more days I live the more I understand the connection between silence and noisy creativity, between living “out there” and being within…

This might be the most important post of the year, at least the links at the bottom are! It’s about a new beginning, a place and a way of thinking (or not thinking that much really). I wanted to talk a bit about how I’ve been influenced by one particular book this year, it’s called The New Earth. And how important the Now is and how much I believe in it. And even though I forget it more than I remember it I want to live by it as much as I can. We can never do more than keep trying. We can never stop trying!

Our mind (brain) is a tricky and difficult place, and even scientist don’t know shit about how it works yet. But I am a firm believer in seeking knowledge and learning new things all the time. Reading, listening, asking questions. And not just about worldly subjects as information for work or school or even just for fun knowing any more, but about spirituality too! Yes matters of the heart. How can I become a better person, for myself and for others? How can my life be meaningful? How do I find meaning in this world? One way has been through Eckhart Tolle‘s teachings this year, and this is what I need to share with you all right now.

A few months ago I downloaded Oprah’s free web class A New Earth into my iPod. They are ten talks/classes following along the chapters of Tolle’s latest book A New Earth. I didn’t read the book first because I have tried reading him before, and it was boring. I tried one of his earlier works but I didn’t like it at all. Nothing Tolle says in his books are new information, nor to me nor to the world. To me it’s not new because I do know about the benefits of meditation and I’ve read books and articles about Zen, Buddhism and New Age Spirituality. So I could follow along without too many questions marks and I found the classes very interesting and full of thought provoking material. This material will make you look closely on your own life, your thoughts, actions, obsessions and passions. And it will make you want to grow and change, if you’re ready to do that.

I saw that many of you did the same, listened, read, learned and followed along this summer class. In fact the class have been followed by millions around the world. As Oprah says this is truly powerful! And it is. So simple, yet so difficult to grasp. This was a growing contagious beautiful thing in our life, because it is something we all share and want; knowledge about how to live a good life. This is an important subject to me, and increasingly so the past two years. I have not found my way yet, but I’m searching within more than I do outwards. I think I need to be better on doing both simultaneously now.

Tolle talks about how we as humans are on the verge of creating a new world by a personal transformation that shifts our attention away from our ever-expanding egos. He says it’s time to look within, and I agree with him.

After listening through the classes I still wanted more, so I got the book after all, but as a audio book with Eckhart Tolle himself reading. His German dialect that I first thought ugly and distracting now feels comfortable and calming. And it resembles my own, so I shouldn’t through stones when I live in a glass house with my own Swedish accent. What Tolle is teaching is as I mentioned, very easy but oh so difficult. I think it is difficult because it challenges our way of thinking and being. It’s like nothing we’ve been told by parents, teachers, school or society. And many times it is the opposite of what we’ve been told.

Some statements in this book could make you sad, perplex or fill you with disbelieve or even anger. You will be challenged to think and act no matter who you are – and I think that is a good thing. Something about this reading just seems profoundly important, if you are able to grasp it. I had to listen back a few times to really understand it. Some of the things he talks about sounds like contradiction of terms, like alert stillness for example. What the hell is that? But whether you agree with the information given or not, it has something important to say about the world we’ve created and how we can coupe in it.

I took notes and wrote down several quotes while listening to the audio book A New Earth this year, and I will read/listen to it again next year to reinforce what I learn and try to hear new things. This is a book that will expand as your mind expands, though the year(s) if you let it.

Links to start with

Web Classes – download all ten classes right now! They are available as mp3, video or transcripts for free.

Oprah Soul Series Radio – search for it in iTunes and subscribe to this my favorite radio show! Oprah has interviewed a lot of interesting authors this year! A great listen as the New Year approaches is her interview with Sarah Ban Breathnach, the woman who told us about the power of keeping a Gratitude Journal and the author of the book Simple Abundance. She say “Gratitude is the most passionate transformative force in the cosmos”!

I haven’t read this book yet though I wanted to in 2008. I need to renew my membership to the library so I can borrow this book. Thanks for your thoughts on this subject. It’s always great to get a different view and perspective.

I love the quote by Tolle. Really powerful. Thanks for all the wonderful links. I’m going to check them out this week. It is true we have to get our minds together to really hear ourselves think and feel our feelings. Then we can truly create from a more authentic place.

AWESOME post! Thank you so much for sharing what you’ve learned, and what you’ve found to be important. I will definitely check out the links you provided for us. In the past I tried to read Tolle’s books, too, and had the same experience. I’m encouraged to know there’s still hope for me! Thank you again, and Happy New Year! All my best, Kathy.

You know, it’s funny; but it seems like the most profound discoveries are ones that we already knew. When I was at my previous job, they put a lot of stress on the teachings of Dale Carnegie. He isn’t a guru in a normal sense of the word, but he did teach a lot about how to treat people and how to understand them-as well as get your message across so that they can understand you. Tolle sounds a lot like thatt. I know that I need to be more in the moment-and that I can be a better person by paying attention to what is going on around me RIGHT THEN, so why in the world don’t I do it?
Really makes you think.
Thanks for the profound and thought provoking words today!

Thank you so much. I have followed your advice and have just started listening to the series and I love it. I guess I am in a moment in my life where I needed this. I have felt so lost in the past few months and it’s like something has opened up inside me. I can move forward.

Not sure if it makes sense, but I just wanted to say thank you for your post on this. I think this could and can really help me.

Hello Hanna,
Gott Nytt ?r!!! :)
Thank you for this post and the links. In fact I think we share a story here. I was interested in the books by Eckhart Tolle but the first book I got from me was kind of “boring”. (I thought it is because I bought the Czech version and not the Hungarian or English. ) then somehow I found my way to the the Oprah web classes and I was sold to the “story”. I already got the book and it is one of the must reads for this year. (Though I admit the audiobook version sounds even more interesting.)

Thank you for telling me about this iPod series. Also, your post is very important. What I have found in my years of reading and thinking about these issues, which are VERY personal, and also political, is that I must make these practices habitual. People are creatures of habit. We will do what we always did, and it’s hard to get out of that pathway. Our assumptions, the things we ignore, the things we focus on, our reactions, are all very difficult to change. Once we figure out what we want those things to be, we have to practice them until they are habit. I’m sure you know this, but I only say it to remind myself that behavior is the key. Habit makes all the difference. So I am going to go to your links now, absorb, ponder, sort things out and reaffirm my ethics and my choices. And I hope this year to make them all habitual. A habit of behaviors. I will get this book, too. Thank you, Hanna!

Thanks for a very interesting post Hanna and links to others. I think New Year always brings us a time to re-evaluate our lives and make a fresh start. We are very lucky – in 365 days time we will get another one…lol.

I have been reading this book all over Christmas. I can only do bite sized chunks because it is so profound I am afraid i might miss something important if I read it too fast – it has helped me enormously – and you too? – ‘how do you know this is the experience you need? because it is the experience you are having’!
amazing
the ‘pain bodies’ freaked me out – but make perfect sense- itsn’t it sad how much wrong view I/we all have?
anyway – I got another blank book for Christmas – I have to start using them! the one I got from you is still untouched!
lovely post Hanna
thank you

I am 59 years old and reading this book and listening to the series changed my life! Yes, it is all stuff we’ve heard or read before-why didnt I listen? Because we always are looking for what we think is going to be some profound answer to life- but it is really simple. Trust in the Now-Live in the Now-it’s all you need. I have really enjoyed your blog and creative ideas and hope that the “Now Year” continues to be enlightening for you. Thank You.

People give you their opinions and thoughts. You will see that many of these deviate and betray truth. Truth is solid, forever, unchangeable. Eckhart sparked something so gradual yet also unmoved. Enlightenment was always lingering, but unlike truth, it deceived me. No wait; IT WAS MY EGO THAT BETRAYED ME! Its not my life, I AM LIFE. I love you all. Goodnight.